OPS REBOOKED WITHIN 2 WEEKS

NHS official's pledge to strike-hit patients

- BY SASKIA ROWLANDS

PATIENTS who miss appointments due to the doctors' strike will be seen within a fortnight, an NHS boss vowed yesterday.

Resident doctors began a five-day walkout over pay on Friday, leaving thousands of people concerned their treatment will be cancelled or delayed.

But NHS England's Prof Meghana Pandit yesterday stressed that any appointments affected will be rebooked within a couple of weeks.

Prof Pandit, the co-national medical director of NHS England, admitted: "I know it is distressing, and even two weeks is too long for somebody to wait and actually, that has an impact on the people who are then displaced at that two-week period."